SEIZURE OF POT IS LARGEST THIS YEAR

Warner Springs haul is county’s biggest ever on private land

north county  Drug agents seized an estimated $41 million worth of marijuana over the weekend from an unincorporated area of Warner Springs called Sunshine Summit, authorities said Monday.

It took 35 local law enforcement officers and federal agents from the San Diego County Narcotics Task Force two days to dismantle the operation, which had about 41,000 marijuana plants on a 40-acre parcel, said Amy Roderick, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent.

The confiscation was the largest ever on private property in San Diego County, Roderick said. It also was the biggest seizure this year by the task force, which includes the DEA, U.S. Border Patrol, San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and San Diego Police Department.

Drug agents spotted the operation four months ago during one of the task force’s routine air surveillance flights, Roderick said. The property where the marijuana was growing abuts a ranch but was not part of that parcel, she said.

When agents arrived at the site Saturday after obtaining a search warrant, the field with the marijuana was deserted, Roderick said.

“These were all mature plants that could be harvested,” she said.

In a typical outdoor marijuana growing season, which goes from May through October, plants can be harvested four or five times, Roderick said. These plants were seized early in the growing season before that could happen, she said.

Water was supplied to the plants by two large water tanks, she said. Next to the tanks, task force members also found a 30-round semi-automatic firearm magazine and chemical fertilizers.

No arrests have been made, but the investigation is ongoing, Roderick said. The government will destroy all of the plants, she said.

In 2011, the task force confiscated nearly 200,000 marijuana plants. The largest seizure last year was 20,000 plants on U.S. Forest Service land on Palomar Mountain.

Roderick did not have figures for how many marijuana plants the task force has seized this year, but she said it appears 2012 will be similar to last year for confiscations.